Arizona Mission Offering: Zona helps youth with today’s issues

Parker Jones leads a guided prayer time at this year’s Zona Camp.

Parker Jones still remembers when he was a student at Zona, the Arizona Mission Network’s summer camp for teens. This summer, he was on the other side working with the crew.

He got to listen to the main speaker share one of the hardest tragedies he’s ever experienced — the speaker’s wife committed suicide. “It’s a subject that youth are experiencing all around, and it’s reflective of their high school experience,” Parker says. Speaking sessions like these are what makes Zona so unique.

Parker is a college student and Christian Challenge missionary apprentice who served as a leader at Zona this year. But Zona isn’t your typical camp. After morning Bible study, the middle and high school students who attend can choose from four different tracks:

1. Zona University — where campers study theological topics taught by experts
2. Mission Life — where campers serve at church areas in Riverside, California
3. Worship Catalyst — where campers practice music and learn how to lead worship
4. Impact — where campers interested in leadership learn evangelism and discipleship

Typically at Zona, college students serve as leaders for the youth, and Christian Challenge staff mentor the college students. But because Parker is a Christian Challenge apprentice, he got to pour into both youth and the college students.

Parker Jones (second from left) joins other Zona staffers preparing to welcome campers to Zona.

The college leaders are trained on everything from evangelism to directing abused youth to on-campus counselors. For many of the leaders, this is their first time sharing the gospel.
“It’s exciting, but daunting,” Parker says.

Parker went to Zona when he was in high school, and what impacted him the most was being able to talk with different pastors and study topics he was afraid to ask questions about.

This year, he had the privilege of co-leading a Bible study with eight youth, several of whom were unchurched. By the end of the week, two of the youth confessed Christ as Savior.

One first-time Zona camper was a graduating senior who came from a non-Christian household.

“He was confused about why LGBT issues were discussed at Zona because it was so taboo,” Parker says. He got to present the gospel and explain that Jesus can change anyone. “Even though the student didn’t struggle with same-sex attraction, he now understands that Jesus came for everyone,” Parker says.

When you give to the Arizona Mission Offering, your gift supports local ministries like Zona.

“The work being done at Zona is going to have an eternal significance,” Parker says. “It has for me, for my college students, and for more youth students than I could possibly count.”

Claudia Macdonald, a freelance writer living in Phoenix, is a member of First Southern Baptist Church at Sahuaro Ranch, Glendale.